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Circulating Melanoma Tumour Cells

The research

Melanoma is one of Australia’s most common
cancers with over 13,000 new diagnoses per year. In one out of ten patients,
the melanoma diagnosis comes too late, as the melanoma has already spread
throughout the body, drastically diminishing the chances of survival. With more
than 1,700 Australians dying every year from melanoma -one every five hours -
we urgently require a better understanding of how the melanoma spreads and why
certain tumours respond to current treatments while others do not.

In this project, researchers aim to capture and
study the cells responsible for melanoma spreading. These cells, circulating
tumour cells (CTCs) are released from the tumour into the blood stream. By
studying the cells and the DNA and RNA of these cells, researchers will
increase their understanding of how melanoma tumours spread and why some
tumours respond to treatment. Using CTCs removes the need for highly invasive
tumour biopsies.

ECU’s melanoma research centre has become a
reference research centre for the study of CTCs in melanoma, and it has now
begun to expand the research to include breast and prostate cancers.

Identifying the patients that will or will not
respond to treatment is the goal of the research project moving forward. The
team have developed technologies and tools to isolate single melanoma cells
from blood and are collaborating with world leaders to sequence DNA from single
cells to gain an understanding of the genetic makeup of these tumour-derived
cells. The research will indicate how melanoma tumours spread allowing
development of further strategies aimed at inhibiting melanoma dissemination.

Partnerships

This project is supported by a dynamic
interdisciplinary team of high calibre scientists and clinicians across
prestigious research institutions and hospitals in Western Australia, Australia
and worldwide. This team includes a network of research-focused clinicians
including Winthrop Professor Michael Millward at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital,
Dr Adnan Khattak and Prof Christobel Saunders at Fiona Stanley Hospital, Dr
Tarek Meniawy at St John of God Hospital and Dr Sam Bowyer at Rockingham
General. In addition, the research team
has established a research collaboration with PathWest for acquisition of tumour
tissue samples and DNA sequencing.